According to F-Secure, more than 250,000 new pieces of Windows malware were identified in 2007, and, if current trends continue, we are set for another 500,000 to appear by the end of 2008 (www.f-secure.com/2007/2/index.html).

Meanwhile, the number of total pieces of Mac malware is rumored to be less than .1% of that total, with the majority of that total appearing only last year.1

Given those sorts of statistics, I know which side of the fortress I'd want to be..

I was just watching a tutorial video on "Networking and Security" on Lynda.com, and the guy said they did a test to see how long a computer could stay hooked up to the internet without any sort of protection (including the firewall of a router) before getting compromised, and he said it took an average of about 12 seconds.

I'm not usually one to fall prey to these sort of scare tactics, but that kinda worked on me.

Of course, after watching the section on Mac security, I felt much better....but still.

I wish there was a good breakdown on how to best protect your Mac from security threats somewhere...

Does anyone here use the built in firewall software in Leopard?

I have an Airport Extreme Base Station, use Little Snitch, and have Intego's Virus Barrier installed, so I'm not convinced that the built in firewall is gonna do much more for me than what I've already got.

Yes, and I've also switched "stealth mode" on... however, the message at the bottom of Scooper's posts still accurately tells me what OS I'm using, what my IP address is and which browser I'm using. So, I'm not sure how effective it all is.

That doesn't have anything to do with stealth mode. Stealth mode simply doesn't answer the door when anyone comes a knocking. However your browser sends information telling websites that are visited what it is, and that's what those sigs present.

That doesn't have anything to do with stealth mode. Stealth mode simply doesn't answer the door when anyone comes a knocking. However your browser sends information telling websites that are visited what it is, and that's what those sigs present.

This article isn't telling us anything we don't already know, if you install a virus, trojan, or malware on your mac it's "You" the user who is responsible for putting it there. Especially don't download pirated software and be very cautious about using peer2peer networks. Get your software from reputable sources like apple.com, version tracker, and Mac update. And using a firewall anytime you're connected to the internet is always recommended.

Now I'm new to using a mac and at first I was using antivirus software just to be on the safe side but then I learned that it's really not necessary, unless you have no brains and go around installing viruses on purpose as did the idiot who wrote that article and now wants to cry wolf to the rest of us. I have enough faith in apple that when the time comes and it becomes a must have they will tell us, and who knows maybe by then it will be something that will be built into the operating system already to protect us from such threats.